If the Central Plains dynasty, which is all in Huaibei, wants to go south to attack a separatist regime like the Southern Tang Dynasty, there are only three ways to go in Ezhou, that is, when Wuchang is not in its hands.
The westernmost one was the one that Fu Jian and Zhou Shizong Guo Rong took back then, descending from the Feishui River to attack Shouzhou, which later became Shouxian County in Anhui Province.
A road in the middle can go down from the vortex to attack Haozhou. This Haozhou is Fengyang, Zhu Hongwu's hometown.
The easternmost one goes south from Xuzhou through Surabaya to attack Chuzhou, the bridgehead in the Huainan region.
Chuzhou was Huai'an in later generations. Only by occupying this place could we reach Yangzhou directly through the Hangou of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and threaten the hinterland of Jiangnan.
But there are three options, but in fact Zhang Zhao doesn't have many choices.
First of all, it is unrealistic to attack Shouzhou from Feishui River.
Because after Liu Yanzhen raised 30,000 imperial troops to the north, Li Jing transferred the famous Southern Tang general Liu Renzhan from his post as the military commander of the Wuchang Army in Ezhou to the military commander of the Qinghuai Army in Shouzhou.
Liu Renzhan was originally in Wuchang because the Southern Tang Dynasty was preparing to take action against Ma Chu, who was in constant civil strife.
Little Li Jing's brain circuit is a bit strange. The Central Plains is so chaotic that he does not use the strength of the whole country to go north to compete. Instead, he first wants to fight against Wang Min, and then wants to fight against Ma Chu, doing all the trivial things.
However, he was not that stupid. At least he knew how to make Liu Renzhan the military commander of the Huai Army of the Qing Dynasty.
Although Liu Renzhan was able to secure Shouzhou in history, it was because Zhou Shizong deliberately wanted to encircle the area for reinforcements.
However, Guo Rong did not decide to encircle the point and mobilize reinforcements from the beginning. He had no choice but to encircle the point and mobilize reinforcements after he really could not capture Shouzhou.
This proves that Liu Renzhan's qualifications as a famous general are not false.
At this time, Zhang Zhao did not have as much time as Guo Rong, so it was impossible for him to touch Shouzhou.
As for Haozhou in the middle, that's not a good choice either.
First of all, the transportation capacity and shipping conditions of Wishui are far inferior to Feishui in the west and Surabaya in the east. If you use Wishui, the transportation of baggage will be quite troublesome.
Secondly, the Huaihe River runs directly through the north of Haozhou. This section of the Huaihe River flows fast and has dangerous river courses. It is simply the best natural barrier in Haozhou.
The terrain of the Haozhou area is in the shape of mountains and plains between mountains and rivers in the south.
Although there is flat land, it is cut into small pieces by dense rivers and hills, which is extremely unfavorable for the activities of the northern cavalry, but conducive to the movement of naval forces who are good at boats.
In addition, Haozhou can be regarded as the poorest place in Huainan. The people are strong and the supply is difficult. It would be difficult to get into Haozhou and get out again.
Historically, very few people chose to use Haozhou as their breakthrough point. This was the reason why they spent a lot of time in the following weeks and only attacked Haozhou and neighboring Sizhou at the end.
Then the only option left is to go to Xuzhou, go south along Surabaya to Suzhou, and knock on the door to Huainan, Chuzhou (Huai'an). Such a choice.
However, at this time, the road from Xuzhou to Chuzhou was not easy to travel, because in later generations, it was easier to travel from Xuzhou to Chuzhou, especially from Suzhou to Chuzhou. That was because there was a middle canal from Suzhou to Chuzhou.
However, the Central Canal was gradually dug based on the canal during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it did not exist at that time.
Therefore, the Tongji Canal of the Sui-Tang Grand Canal at this time could not directly lead to Chuzhou. It could only go from Sishui to Huaiyin County in the west of Chuzhou, and then from Huaiyin County, walk a section of the Huaihe River to Chuzhou.
Not to mention that this requires boat turnover, Zhang Zhao's naval force is not large and he is not familiar with the water transportation of the Huaihe River. Once he is intercepted by the Southern Tang Army's navy on the Huaihe River, it will be dangerous.
At that time, the navy of the Southern Tang Dynasty in the upper reaches would dispatch large ships from Sizhou and go down the river. Down below, the Zhou army would not be able to capture Chuzhou, and might suffer a big loss on the Huaihe River.
Moreover, even if Chuzhou was successfully captured, Chuzhou was still four hundred miles away from the south bank of the Yangtze River, the heart of the Southern Tang Dynasty. It was far from being able to intimidate the monarchs and ministers of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
Just when Zhang Zhao was thinking hard, the Jinyi guards brought Zhang Zhao extremely important news.
That is, when the people of Chuzhou heard that Liu Yanzhen might die in battle, they actually held a private celebration.
Although they gathered in the name of worshiping Han Xin, the Marquis of Huaiyin, the Jinyi Guards had developed several Chuzhou businessmen selling in-demand goods west of the canal as early as the beginning of the year, so they clearly knew the inside story.
After Zhang Zhao heard this, he immediately asked the Jinyi guards to hand over to Wang Yisi the information on how Liu Yanzhen flooded the fields and devoured the people of Chuzhou when he was the governor of Chuzhou in the past.
Then he went to the captured soldiers and civilians in Nantang Prefecture to look for people with Chuzhou origins, and interrogated them carefully.
Later, a relatively accurate evil plan about how Liu Yanzhen would swallow up 300,000 acres of land from the people of Chuzhou was presented to Zhang Zhao.
Moreover, the Jinyi guards also found out about another policy of the Southern Tang Dynasty in Chuzhou and the entire Huainan, which was Bo Zheng.
The so-called Bo Zheng was a policy that made Zhang Zhao feel numb when he saw it.
Bo can be interpreted as transaction, and its original meaning is to exchange things for things. This is okay. The key lies in the levy at the end, the levy of collection.
In short, the Southern Tang Dynasty strictly controlled the salt, tea, and sugar trade in the entire Huainan region and turned it into an official business.
These three items, especially salt and tea, are necessities for people's livelihood.
After the Southern Tang Dynasty took control of these items, they set the prices very high, and then used these extremely high prices, which were more than ten times higher than the official salt price of private salt, to forcibly exchange goods for the common people's millet, wheat, and rice.
cloth.
Often a small piece of salt can be exchanged for a hundred pounds of grain, and the people do not have the right not to exchange it.
Even if there is no shortage of salt, sugar and tea at home, as long as the government feels that you are in short supply, they can directly come to your door to 'replace' it.
What a good guy, he can obviously rob, but he also has a clever name for it. He really makes me cry to death!
Under this policy, the people of Huainan suffered terribly, and it also gave rise to various dark forces among the people.
For example, the few Huainan businessmen recruited by the Jinyi Guards were not legitimate businessmen at all. They were armed private salt and sugar dealers.
In addition to the Bo Zheng, the Southern Tang court also implemented the military land system in Huainan in the name of guarding against the Central Plains court.
Hmm..., do you think that the military land system of the Southern Tang Dynasty was to set aside a piece of land and let the army cultivate it?
Thinking too much! They seized the people's mature fields and directly designated them as military fields, and then used political decrees to force the Huainan people not to cultivate their own fields until they finished cultivating the military fields.
The so-called military land system was originally a policy stipulated in the early days of Li Min's administration to enhance Huainan's military reclamation and defense capabilities.
But in the later period, powerful people from high-ranking court officials to local officials formed a strong chain of interests and firmly controlled this area.
Speaking of it, it was a military land system, a military settlement. There were no soldiers at all, and all the people relied on voluntary labor. They were not allowed to cultivate their own fields until they had finished cultivating the military fields.
Since there were no soldiers, the output must have nothing to do with the army. Most of it was divided up by officials and local powerful people, and a small amount went into Li Jing's inner treasury.
When Liu Yanzhen was the governor of Chuzhou, he dared to flood the food rations of hundreds of thousands of people at one time. It was this interest group that was driving and protecting him behind the scenes.
No wonder this guy became a 'famous general'. The Southern Tang court had benefited so much from him, so how could they not help to praise him?
Zhang Zhao suddenly felt that it was too easy for Liu Yanzhen to be killed directly. He should capture him alive and execute him in Lingchi.
This..., what sins did the people of Huainan, that is, the people of Huai'an, Yancheng, and Lianshui in later generations, commit to receive this "blessing"?
After understanding these operations, Zhou Papi was regarded as a super good person in front of the Southern Tang court.
However, since the people of Huainan have suffered so much, this is Zhang Zhao's opportunity.
He immediately called Zhang Liecheng in front of him and ordered, "Send out eight hundred miles of cavalry to send some of the businessmen you have developed, as well as the most prestigious people from the people near Chuzhou, to Xuzhou day and night."
The so-called eight-hundred-mile ride means it is definitely impossible to run eight hundred miles in one day, but if you choose a BMW that is good at walking, it can still be done if you can run more than one hundred miles in a day.
Zhang Liecheng knew that the matter was important and hurried down to make arrangements. Zhang Zhao immediately held a military meeting. Since it was possible to successfully capture Chuzhou, Zhang Zhao had a big plan.
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In the White Tiger Festival Hall of the Wuning Military Administration Office, Zhang Zhao's hand continued to draw downwards from Chuzhou on the map, and did not stop until he reached Yangzhou.
At this time, the Southern Tang Dynasty had two capitals, the east and west. The west capital was Jiangning Mansion, where the emperor and the imperial court were based.
The eastern capital was Yangzhou, which was the economic and cultural center of the Southern Tang Dynasty. During the Tang Dynasty, Nanjing's status was far from comparable to that of Yangzhou.
From Chuzhou (Huai'an) to Yangzhou, the Hangou section of the Sui-Tang Grand Canal was still very smooth, and there were Chi Roads built on both sides of the Hangou, which was simply a highway going straight to Yangzhou.
"My intention is that after capturing Chuzhou, I will immediately select elite cavalry, with fifteen thousand cavalry as the vanguard and five thousand cavalry as the back-up. One person and three horses will march at starry night directly to Yangzhou, the eastern capital of Southern Wu.
Since Yang Xingmi took control of Huainan, apart from small-scale frictions with Wu Yue, Yangzhou has not been at war for fifty years.
Fireworks descend on Yangzhou in March. In a place like this where flowers bloom, I am afraid that we have long forgotten how wars are fought, and we must be relaxed.
I attacked suddenly with my fine cavalry, but they were unprepared, and Yangzhou will definitely not be able to defend it."
As soon as Zhang Zhao's words came out, everyone was shocked, but after the shock, they became excited.
Zhang Zhao looked around at the cavalrymen around him: Bai Congxin, Ma Shacai, Murong Nobunaga, Li Cunhui, Li Ruotai, Gao Xingzhou, Gao Huaide, Yao Yuanfu, Hu Guang, Huang Yingda, Qiongre Duojin, Zhao Yanjin, Zhao Kuangyin, Zhe
Deyuan, Wang Shenqi.
Both of them are the most famous warriors of this era, and there are three generations of old, middle and young people, who need experience and hard work.
In addition, there were a large number of second-, third- and fourth-generation BMWs with folded ears and sweat-blooded horses in the army, as well as golden-finger weapons such as cloth-covered iron armor, pear-shaped spears, and divine arm bows. The Southern Tang army was in a hurry and it was impossible to resist.
"Sage, Yangzhou has been captured, what should we do?" Murong Nobunaga asked softly.
He knew what Zhang Zhao was thinking, and he didn't want to destroy the Southern Tang Dynasty, because he couldn't do it.
What Zhang Zhao wants now is to ask Li Jing to cede territory and become a vassal like Shi Jingtang, offer gold and silver treasures, remove himself from the title of Tang Dynasty, and become a good son-emperor, so he asked this question.
Zhang Zhao saw that Li Cunhui was a little eager to try, so he stretched out his hand.
"Cun Huier, tell me what we should do?"
Generally speaking, this kind of question is answered by Murong Nobunaga, so Li Cunhui was very excited and said with a blushing face.
"Back to the saint, we should be kind to the people in Yangzhou and pretend to be here for a long time.
In this way, the Southern Wu court was afraid that I would drink up the river, and would definitely use all the strength of the country to rescue me. We quietly left Yangzhou City and ambush in the Guabu area.
Wait for the Southern Wu army to cross the river from Guabu and attack with all their strength before their foothold is stable. If this army is killed, Li Jing will send his envoy to kneel in front of the saint, kowtow and beg for mercy!"
"Hahaha!" Zhang Zhao laughed, feeling excited.
"My son really has the qualities to be a general. Would you like to be a pioneer?"
Li Cunhui immediately knelt down and shouted happily: "I would like to be a pioneer and capture this pig-shaped dragon in Nanwu for you!"
As soon as they saw that Li Cunhui was going to take the lead, all the generals in the hall asked for orders one after another, and their morale was like a rainbow for a while.